Highland Council receives update on Inverness Police Control Room

Highland
Council members have responded to a presentation by Police Scotland on Police
Control Rooms. Members of the Communities and Partnerships Committee received
an update at their meeting on 23 March.

Police
Scotland outlined their intention to move to a national command and control
through the rationalisation of the control rooms to three in Dundee, Govan and
Bilston Glen, with the transfer of command and control from Inverness to Dundee
from August 2016.

Members
sought clarification on future arrangements. A number of members expressed the
continuing desire to keep the Inverness Control Room and to have adequate local
scrutiny in place if the removal of command and control goes ahead.

Chair
of the Communities and Partnerships Committee, Cllr Hamish Fraser said: “There
are clear concerns about the changes to be made, such as identifying correct
locations and place names. We are told that a great deal of work has been done
on this and I am slightly more comfortable, but we should have a system in
place that is failsafe.”

Leader
of The Highland Council, Margaret Davidson Cllr Davidson added: “The HMICS
Report set the bar high for standards of assurance and we need to have a
guarantee that these standards have been met. I would like a much clearer idea
of the hurdles which need to be passed before we feel safe to move to the new
control systems.

“For
me the biggest risk is around reputational risk to Police Scotland and public
confidence. We have been told the Inverness Control Room is to close in just
five months. How do we know that these assurances are strong enough and that
this decision is not just being driven by money?

“We
have a tradition of policing by consent, but there is not the consent of the
Highlands for this major change. I would like to know whether there is a case
for keeping open the Inverness Control Room.”